The Price of Freedom
by SeaEmerald
Summary: Brandon and Stella have been the best of best friends for years. But when Brandon enlists in the military as a Marine, Stella mopes. When he does come back four years later, things aren't as welcoming as before. His Sunshine isn't exactly the fun, bubbly, cheerful, and optimistic blonde he knew for over two decades. When he's determined to find out why...he wishes he hadn't asked.


**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN WINX CLUB.**

 **This story is _not_ special at all. I've been a few PMs lately from a few friends, saying that they wanted a classical fiction story from me. Abusive stories are fairly common around, so I'm a little touched that they wanted one from me.**

 **One of my friends told me that she wanted to see me explore Brandon's character a little more since I always make him a CEO, police officer, etc.**

 **Hence...the out-of-the-blue occupation for Brandon ;)!**

 **I have a one-shot in progress for Brandon and Stella _(it's finished but will be published in November)_. So, I got this idea from that one-shot :)!**

 **So, this is for _all_ of you! I hope you enjoy! Please read/reviewwww! And see you in the AN down below :)!**

 **I literally wrote this in about 20-30 minutes and it's past midnight for me. So, please ignore grammatical mistakes/errors :)**

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 **~ Prologue ~**

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 _As fast as lightning, she stood up from the table with a neutral and hard expression on her face. She tossed him a deeply wounded, betrayed look before excusing herself from the table and bolting out the house through the back door. Tears streaked down her face as she cried, despite her futile attempts to furiously wipe the waterworks away._

 _She sniffled while walking through the backyard to the front of the house when his arms wounded around her waist tightly. She sobbed and immediately shifted around to face him._

 _"I hate you!" she cried while pounding her fists against his lean, yet athletic build._

 _He sighed before pulling her in for a bone-crushing hug. "I'm so sorry, Sunshine. I tried so many times to tell you, but we always had interruptions. I obviously didn't want you to find out with everyone else!"_

 _"But...but how could you do this?" she sniffled as she looked up at him._

 _He cast her a heartbroken look. "I don't want to, Stel. I don't want to leave you. But...this is just something that I need to do for...myself," he explained gently while gingerly wiping her cascading tears away._

 _She sniffled as he patted her head and rubbed another hand soothingly up and down her back._

 _"I vowed to myself that I would never make you cry. I don't want to leave you like this," he softly said, holding her close._

 _"Then why are you leaving? Why can't you just stay?" she cried, knowing that this was the most selfish thing she has ever asked for in her young life._

 _He smiled down sadly at her. "It's just something that I have to do. Will you promise me something?"_

 _She refused instantly and stubbornly crossed her arms, looking away. He laughed at her cuteness but knew that she was listening._

 _"Promise me that you'll always try to be happy," he softly asked._

 _"How can I? You're literally leaving me!" she shouted. "To hell with your promise! Fine, go! I hate you!" She let out another choked sob and processed his words before bursting out into a stream of cries. He really was leaving._

 _"...And promise me that you'll let me go," he finished after her outburst before pulling her in for another hug._

* * *

 _ **Four years later...**_

"You little _bitch!"_ he yelled loudly while smashing a plate against the wall, breaking it into a million, smashed smithereens.

Stella backed herself away before cursing mentally after her back hit a concrete wall. She whimpered in fear as Jason Sinclair walked predatoriously towards her.

She cried out again when he slapped her hard across the face. "Jason, p-please-" she shook with fright and cried at the pain, but it earned her another slap across her cheek. The force of the hit made her fall to the floor with a painful thud. "YOU WERE FLIRTING WITH HIM!" Jason yelled angrily before lifting her by her hair, letting another deep cry emit from the base of her throat.

"No, I wasn't-" she stuttered painfully as he slammed her against the wall. She could feel a bruises forming on her body already.

"Why are you lying to me?!" he yelled again before shaking her madly.

"Jason, please. I would never lie to you..." she sobbed as the tears she's been holding in for so long finally fell down her face.

His gaze softened at her distress as he set her down on her feet gently. "Okay, I believe you...I'm sorry," he said before tracing her injured face with the back of his knuckles. She winced at the fire that burned inside of her cheeks. She felt her face grow hot, but not for the right reasons. It stung with a fiery pain that even a few, icy cold compresses wouldn't be able to handle.

"I love you, baby," he said before hugging her possessively and tightly.

She hugged him back immediately, knowing the dire consequences if she _didn't._ "I love you too," she choked out even though she didn't mean a single word of it. She knew that he would hit her again if she didn't say the things he wanted to hear.

Her eyes watered as she felt the urge to curl up into a ball and cry her heart out.

"I'll see you later then," he smirked before pulling back from her. He grabbed her face before roughly kissing her with demand and possessiveness. She felt dizzy and nauseous but kissed him back emotionlessly anyway.

In a few moments, he left the house, but not before tossing her another glance of warning.

She shut the door and locked it firmly after he left before running up to her safe haven of a bedroom. She choked on her voice as she cried helplessly. With hopeless eyes, she sniffled before racing around the room and drawing the curtains close. She went to her closet before parting her clothes.

She bent as more tears rolled down her face rapidly. She pushed the clothes and other junk aside before pulling out a secret stash of letters that she kept hidden.

She hugged the letters to her chest before sniffling once more. Wiping her tears away, she lightly smiled at the handwriting.

 _Sunshine :)_

She laughed at the little smiley face before opening and rereading one of the letters. She managed to memorize each and every word of the letters from the countless amount of times she read them.

 _Hey, Sunshineeee!_

 _So, my clumsy blonde isn't so clumsy anymore ;)_

 _I see you're finally in college now! Congratulations! When I come back, I better not have heard that you went to those frat parties._

Stella closed her eyes as a few tears leaked out. She wished so badly that she had actually listened to this advice because that's _exactly_ where she met her current so-called 'boyfriend'. _The irony. Heh._

She sniffled before clutching the papers to her chest. Hastily, she put them all back into her secret compartment again. Jason had a spare key and made it a constant habit of dropping in unannounced, just to 'check in' on her.

She walked back towards her bed before falling limply on the mattress. Her body slowly started to register tonight's beatdown as she moaned with the pain. Fatigue caught up to her as her eyes fell doozy at her clear lack of rest.

Her eyes watered as she cried herself to sleep while chanting one name over and over again in her sleep.

 _"Brandon..."_

…

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 ** _This is just a preview-ish of the upcoming chapters. So, if anyone likes it, I'll definitely continue because rooommmaaaannnnncccceeeeeee is my departmmeeeennntttt! *sing song voice*_**

 **Haha, just kidding, guys. But seriously, please do review? It would mean so much to me.**

 **I've done some minimal research on the minimum terms of military enlistments. For a Marine, it's 4-5 years of minimum commitment. Just stating that d:**

 **But I could be wrong since I don't know anyone in the army, not even my own family members.**

 **So...do let me know!**

 **Thank you! And I'll (hopefully) see you guys in the next update :D!**


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